historical question (french colonial america [nouvelle france])

N#16260

This is a 6 Deniers "Dardenne" of Louis XIV, I have been interested in the history of Quebec for a while and was wondering if this coin would have circulated in the colony of New France.

Interesting question.

It is very likely that such coins did circulate in Nouvelle-France. There were almost always major shortages of coins in New France, but whatever circulated was mostly the regular coinage struck for France herself. France struck few specifically colonial issues and none exclusively for New France, though some colonial coins were sent to (or did reach) New France, such as the 9 deniers of 1721–1722.

France cared much more for her Caribbean colonies such as Saint-Domingue (now Haiti) because they were producing sugar. Those colonies were somewhat better provided with cash but they, too, went through major shortages.

I see, to be honest why did France mint colony exclusive coins instead of using regular French standard circulation coins 100% of the time?

I was going to edit my message and add this link:

https://numismatics.org/pocketchange/jambu/

As for your new question, there can be several reasons to have a colony-specific coinage. I know more about British colonial coinage, where for example colonies which had their own monetary system before the British conquest were allowed to keep it — for a time at least. So, for example, British Guyana kept on using the stiver (stuyver in Dutch) going back to Dutch colonial times.

In the French colonies, as in the British for that matter, it was difficult to keep money circulating locally because it was often sent back right away to pay for goods received from the motherland. So, a coinage specific to a single colony or a group of colonies could discourage its exportation because that coinage was not meant to be legal tender back home. It was often, too, a coinage of lower intrinsic value (i.e. of lower silver content) than the coins of the motherland so that melting them as bullion wouldn't be profitable.

“Furthermore, not one of these coins were created especially for French America—not even the sols reformed in 1640 and those created in 1738, contrary to the opinion expressed by some authors on both sides on the Atlantic. They have just been sent to the colonies, when necessary, like so many other coins. French coins in America are not French American coins.”

I feel like this answers a lot of questions, so it's fair to assume that regular French coins circulated in Nouvelle-France, any thoughts?

Radarouton

“Furthermore, not one of these coins were created especially for French America—not even the sols reformed in 1640 and those created in 1738, contrary to the opinion expressed by some authors on both sides on the Atlantic. They have just been sent to the colonies, when necessary, like so many other coins. French coins in America are not French American coins.”

I feel like this answers a lot of questions, so it's fair to assume that regular French coins circulated in Nouvelle-France, any thoughts?

That's what I said in my first reply. By the way, this fact has been known for a long time. What Jambu contributes to our knowledge is that 

1. a number of coins that were considered “colonial” were actually just French, with some or many sent to some of the colonies;
2. some of the few real colonial issues that were thought for a very long time to be “Canadian” were actually more often than not sent to some of the Caribbean island colonies.

Unfortunately I don't have at hand my 2019 edition of the Charlton catalogue of Canadian coins. In it, however, I know that the old (and wrong) view is maintained, but since it dates to 2019 it's not surprising. I don't know whether the latest editions have been updated yet with Jambu's new evidence. If so, they should have removed by now some of the coins that had been till now attributed to Canada, such as the 1670 coinage.

If anyone who reads this has a recent Charlton catalogue, please let us know!

Thank you for all the information you gave, I feel like this aspect of French colonial America isn't discussed as often, please do send more articles if possible, I'd love to read them.

I specialize in World Contemporary Circulating Counterfeits (CCC). From my cabinet I can offer this information on these historical CCCs: The French copper 9 deniers of 1721–1722, struck under Louis XV for colonial use, were shipped to North America and the Caribbean. Intended to provide small change in the colonies, they carried the legend COLONIES FRANCOISES and were minted in large numbers at Rouen and La Rochelle. Colonists disliked copper coinage, and most of the issue was recalled to France in 1726, but enough remained in circulation overseas to become familiar in trade.

Because these coins were lightweight and relatively simple in design, they became a prime target for contemporary circulating counterfeits (CCC). Colonial counterfeiters produced imitations with crude strikes or inferior alloys, blending them into everyday commerce. The 9 deniers thus stand as one of the earliest examples of French coinage exported to the American colonies that was widely counterfeited, illustrating the constant struggle against debased coinage in early transatlantic trade.

What were the main issues with copper coins in circulation in nouvelle-france?

The 6 denier Dardenne is known to have circulated in New France, as it has been found at archaeological sites.  A relatively large number of these were found at Louisbourg.

The 9 denier coin also circulated in New France (a handful were found at Louisbourg) but were rejected in Canada as the French generally distrusted copper coinage.

During the French Regime in Canada (up to the 1760s) there were a few attempts to issue coinage specifically for the French colonies, but most of these failed, and the coins are extremely rare.  In New France, regular French coins were generally used.

As the French preferred silver coinage, the various billon sol marques were extremely popular in Canada, right from the 1640 countermarks up to the 1738 double sols, but these weren't exclusive to the colonies and also circulated in France.

There were also some very popular billon colonial coins issued for the West Indies, such as the “crowned C” and the "Cayenne 2 sous", however these were issued well after the French Regime in Canada ended.

cedargrove

The 6 denier Dardenne is known to have circulated in New France, as it has been found at archaeological sites.  A relatively large number of these were found at Louisbourg.

Yes — and do you have a source for this? I'd be interested to know. For my part I know that Peter Moogk studied New-France coin circulation in the 1980s—1990s. He published a number of articles on this in the Canadian Numismatic Journal and elsewhere. This is from October 1990 issue of the CNJ:

In the paper he rightly points out that there is a difference between the evidence provided by the legislation and the reality of everyday life. It's not because the law says something about a particular coinage that it was actually in use. Likewise, some coins are never mentioned which were actually a lot more common in circulation than the 9 deniers. 

You get the legislation in the superb collection of documents from exactly a century ago by Adam Shortt:

• Documents Relating to Canadian Currency Exchange & Finance During the French Period Vol. 1
• Documents Relating to Canadian Currency Exchange & Finance During the French Period Vol. 2

Moogk rightly talks about the complementarity between, on the one hand, archaeological finds in the ground, which uncover almost only low value coins and, on the other, shipwrecks that give us excellent evidence on high-end silver and gold coins sent to or from the colonies.

I myself have a number of low grade “doubles” and “liards”:

Did these actually circulate in New France? It's possible. Both are ultra low grade and were sold by a Canadian eBay seller, but that is not a definitive proof by any means. We'll never know for sure where they circulated. I have another one in this post. One could argue they are of low numismatic value, but from the historical point of view, they are representative of the modest coinage in daily use among the lower classes, either in France or America.

Here is a 1739 French écu:

Did it circulate in New France? Possibly, but if not, it would have been the normal kind of large silver coins circulating in that colony.

Here is a 1752 "pillar dollar" from the “L'Auguste” 1761 shipwreck:

I suppose such coins were even more common than the French écu. They were granted legal tender status in New France but I haven't studied this in any detail yet.

My source for the Dardenne is from Moogk's work at Louisbourg.  

A useful link is Kleeberg's “Numismatic Finds of the Americas” which catalogues most of the finds (shipwrecks, archaeological sites, etc) in the Americas.  It is text searchable, however note that much of it was electronically transcribed from written notes hence some of the characters are incorrect - for example a hand-written ½ was often transcribed into Vz.

ia800505.us.archive.org/1/items/numismaticfindso00klee/numismaticfindso00klee_djvu.txt

I collect much of what you are discussing, and initially I only bought from Canadian sources in an effort to increase the chances that the actual items circulated in Canada.  Now I just buy the best examples I can afford, regardless of where they are sold.

Note that your Auguste coin would obviously have circulated in Canada.  IIRC, the majority of French Ecus found on the Auguste were dated prior to the mid-1730s, and the majority of Spanish dollars were dated after the 1730s, which gives us some information as to when Spanish coinage was dominant over French coinage.